Summer Bucket List

Summer is a great time to do fun projects, and a short-term bucket list is a good way to never be able to say “What do I do today?” Read more about how to create a life list here. Here are a few things I’m looking forward to tackling this summer. Do you have any things you’re excited about this summer? Let me know in the comments.

I also made the investment in an outdoor dining table and have been loving being able to eat outdoors (and work, too)!

Get a library card.

I love reading! I’d like to support the library system as well as try a few books I’d never buy with no remorse about returning them after.

Cook from study abroad recipes.

I found a packet of recipes from when I studied abroad in Tuscany in 1999. That experience was great and we had home-cooked meals twice daily, so I’m looking forward to seeing if any of these recipes evoke any specific memories for me when I taste them again.

Sell some (used) stuff.

I have a few things I’d like to sell instead of donating / trashing, so getting on a few sites to sell some things will make me feel good.

Make an ice cream cake.

I think these might be my favorite thing in the world. I’ve made a chocolate mousse cake in the past, but I think it’s time to make an ice cream cake as well. I’m not worried about the recipe or attempting one, more about what will happen once it’s in the house! Bonus points if it’s homemade ice cream.

Do more snail mail.

See the first part of this post. Who wants more than just bills in the mail? Me, me!

Take an online creative course.

I’m pretty interested in something related to drawing and handwriting, as I’ve been practicing that on my own, but may be looking for something a little more structured. Or something else. Any suggestions?

Make limoncello.

My lemon tree keeps on giving, so hopefully if it keeps giving all summer, I can get some young lemons with great skin to make another batch of limoncello.

Make a photo book.

I have been printing some photos as cards, and a few more as magnets, but I’d like to print some more for longer-term keeping. Have a favorite service/printer? Let me know.

Make a jam crostata, from scratch.

Both jam, and crostata crust! I have never liked pie, but I love crostate, and want to make one with some homemade jam as well.

Cook from and publish recipes using vegetables from my vegetable garden.

My herbs are already going crazy meaning lots of pesto and cilantro chutney, but the tomatoes, beans, and eggplants are still on their way, and I can’t wait to be able to cook more from my own vegetable garden.

Continue the workout train 2x week – yoga, Zumba, Body Pump!

I’ve been doing yoga twice a week but want to start adding in some other classes again, but at the very least, just keep the twice weekly momentum going.

(Late entry) Continue meal planning as much as possible.

Several months ago I started doing weekly meal planning on Sundays for the week, and have been able to meal plan most weeks – probably every other week if I average it out. On the weeks I meal plan, things go great – in general I eat healthier, I have something planned for every lunch/dinner (including a few evenings or lunches eating out which are pre-planned), groceries are used up, and there’s little waste. On the weeks I didn’t set aside the time to do it, the week goes considerably worse. I’ll be posting more about meal planning, but hopefully I’ll be able to maintain or increase the weeks I’m able to meal plan this summer!

Sesame Summer Salad Recipe

Here’s a super fresh salad which can be dressed in a number of ways, and you can use whatever veggies you have on hand. The key is making sure all the ingredients are roughly the same size, and I think it makes a good alternative to a traditional cole slaw as a salad for a BBQ or just a hot day. To keep the salad longer, you can store the dressing separately and add before serving.

I made it recently for a friend who is doing Whole 30 and to do that, just omit the corn and sugar from the dressing. I was going to smash up a date and add it to the dressing to get back the sweetness but haven’t experimented!

Dressing

Chop or slice all vegetables into similar-sized bites if not already chopped. Some pre-sliced or chopped vegetables might need an extra chop to make them the same size as the other ingredients.

Mix all vegetables together in a large serving bowl and sprinkle sesame seeds throughout.

In a small bowl or dressing container, mix the ingredients for the dressing and shake or mix well.

Dress the salad and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour, or it can be served immediately.

]]>http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/2017/06/13/a-summer-bucket-list-and-a-whole-30-summer-salad/feed/06477http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/2017/06/13/a-summer-bucket-list-and-a-whole-30-summer-salad/A Brief Stop and Bites in Detroithttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MsAdventuresInItaly/~3/-khZrPsn3w4/
http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/2017/05/16/a-brief-stop-and-bites-in-detroit/#respondWed, 17 May 2017 00:28:10 +0000http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/?p=6434A few months ago I was in Detroit for work, helping small businesses get online at WordPress.com, and while we were there, we were able to meet and eat at local small businesses.

You can see a bit of what we did that weekend in this video below – I make an appearance :) You can see some of the Detroit small businesses using WordPress.com here.

If you remember when I travel I like to use Google Maps to mark places to eat and visit. As you can see in the video above, it was very snowy and cold in Detroit, but that didn’t keep me indoors. This trip had a lot of pre-planned structure in it but I made sure each morning to go out and get a coffee from a local coffee shop instead of sticking to the super-warm lobby coffee shop.

Though we weren’t in Canada, I thought it was a good idea to get some stick-to-my-ribs poutine at “Iron Chef” victor, chef Michael Symon’s ROAST. It was delicious.

We went into the snow to visit the Heidelberg Project, which is “a Detroit-based community organization designed to improve the lives of people and neighborhoods through art.” The resulting art project is in an actual neighborhood and will either charm you or horrify you. I fell on the side of charmed, and the snow meant it was an empty and semi-haunted landscape punctured by art installations.

Barbecue at Slow’s Bar B Q was so good and I can’t believe they fit 17 of us into the packed restaurant at lunch. I love their barbecue sauce lineup.

I ended up ordering the Longhorn sandwich and tried the Mac & Cheese, too (note: all the food pictured is not mine) :)

We toured Ponyride, a non-profit space that’s a mix between an incubator and co-working space, to meet some of the local entrepreneurs doing interesting things. We started with a coffee from Anthology and heard from some of the residents in the space like The Empowerment Plan and their amazing EMPWR coat.

I also stopped by The Royal Fresh Market, one of the small businesses we were getting to know, and I loved walking around and seeing what products and specialties are local. Discovering grocery stores in any place or country is one of my favorite things! Hearing of my love for local stuff, the store manager offered me a Faygo Vanilla Creme Soda, which I promptly sent a pic of to my mother, who is from Michigan. Faygo is from Detroit (and their site is on WP!), so it was as local as I could get. And tasted great, too.

Another morning, another local coffee. This time I went to Roasting Plant, and I really loved that they had their milk on tap!

Just as it was time to go, Detroit started to show off. And I was glad to be there to see it.

]]>I’m going to continue my list of delicious things to eat in Italy with another installment. Together this series will make up an Italy Food Bucket List you need to seek out and try while in Italy! Read Part 1 of the Italy Food Bucket List here.

Something missing from the list? Don’t worry, it will probably be on the next installment.

Burrata

Burrata is mozzarella cheese stuffed with, or rather encapsulating, a rich creamy center with pieces of stracciatella, scraps of mozzarella, and lots of cream. It means you have a smooth mozzarella pinched and tied at the top, with a soft center that’s waiting to spill out when cut. It’s incredibly rich, creamy, and extremely perishable.

It feels like I see burrata everywhere on the menu now in the U.S. and U.K., but 10 years ago (!!) when I first blogged about burrata, it was mostly unknown outside of Italy. Sadly, most of the burrata in the US doesn’t come from Italy because of the perishability of the cheese (and the impossibility to import it), but I’ve also had some delicious burrata elsewhere.

Though burrata originated in the region of Puglia, it’s now relatively easy to find it in many parts of Italy (though it most likely is still imported from Puglia), and you can purchase from a cheesemonger if possible. Burrata needs to be fresh and the sooner you can eat the burrata after purchase, the better.

My tip? Do not heat up burrata. Do not cook it or substitute it in recipes calling for mozzarella. In fact, leave it at room temperature before serving and if you’re eating it with something warm (like pizza), be sure that it doesn’t heat up too much, or you’ll lose the creaminess of the center. Serve it with as little condiment as possible – a little salt and pepper, maybe a small drizzle of olive oil, and pair with ripe tomatoes and salumi.

Pizza Bianca

Pizza bianca is plain pizza dough, baked and drizzled with olive oil and salt, with no other toppings. It’s most common in Rome, and in fact I suggest making sure you do try it when you’re in Rome (see other posts about Rome here).

‘Nduja

‘Nduja (en-DOO-yah) is a spicy pork, pork fat, and hot pepper spread from Calabria, and it’s one of my favorite things to spread onto toasted bread or sometimes even in pasta. Though it comes from Calabria it’s pretty easy to find it outside of the region elsewhere in Italy. Traditional ‘nduja can come in a loaf or sack form (similar to salami) though it’s pretty impossible to slice and is very spreadable. ‘Nduja also comes in jar form which is much easier to find in supermarkets and specialty food stores (like Eataly), and I’ve had versions of ‘nduja which are mixed with other ingredients like Tropea onions, capers, or tuna.

Unfortunately, I think it’s still not permissible to import ‘nduja into the U.S., so you should think twice about sticking a jar in your suitcase to bring home, and be sure to check the customs restrictions for your particular destination.

Stracciatella

If you know Italian food you’ve probably seen stracciatella associated with gelato, which is the chocolate chip variety. But stracciatella is what is inside a burrata (mentioned above), and you can sometimes find it sold by the scoop on its own in cheese shops and supermarkets, and sometimes it will show up on appetizer menus as well.

I like to slather the stracciatella onto toasted bread or pizza bianca. If you like ‘nduja, it pairs deliciously with it and the creaminess cuts right through the spiciness.

Fernet Branca

You don’t eat it, but Fernet Branca is a big part of Italian cuisine. It’s a very popular digestivo, digestive, which is sipped from a small glass after a meal. Fernet Branca has a bit of a cult following in the U.S. and Argentina and it’s drunk more casually there mixed with other alcohol or mixers, but in Italy, it’s still drunk pure, alone, and in small amounts.

I’ve actually toured the Fernet Branca factory in Milan, and it was great to see how it’s made, though you can’t really be sure what’s in it. They say it’s made from a blend of 27 spices (and can taste pretty medicinal), but at the factory they have a ton of spices on display, some of which are decoys so that the exact recipe is not easily guessed. I prefer the slightly sweeter and mintier Brancamenta brand made by the same company, and if it’s served very cold or directly out of the freezer, it’s even better. It’s definitely an effective digestive!

Ricci di Mare, Sea Urchin

Ricci di mare (ree-chee dee MAHR-ay), or sea urchins, are a delicacy which can eaten directly from the sea urchin shell, and sometimes it’s paired with pasta. I’m not a huge fan of the pasta version, but eating one directly from the shell with sea water still inside is worth trying. You can really taste the ocean. As for the pasta, the simpler the sauce the better, so you can taste the ricci di mare instead of it being covered by other flavors.

Where to find them? The closer to the sea you are in Italy, the better. Read more about catching and eating ricci di mare, and a few of the photos from that post ended up in the U.S. edition of La Cucina Italiana.

Fichi d’India, Cactus Fruit

Fichi d’India (FEE-key), cactus fruit, are plentiful in southern Italy during the summer, and especially in the drier areas of Puglia, Sicily, and Calabria.

You can buy them at the street markets and often the spines will already be removed so you can avoid stabbing yourself with them. Some of the sellers will cut and peel the fruit in an instant. The fruit is incredibly full of seeds but still edible, or you can try fichi d’India jam or gelato as well.

Taralli

What can I say about taralli? This Pugliese snack is a cross between a breadstick and a pretzel, one of my favorites, and a great accompaniment to any aperitivo. Taralli are made with olive oil, boiled before baking (like pretzels and bagels) and can be as simply flavored by the oil or also combined with fennel seed, onion, or even pizza flavoring. There is also a sweet version of taralli but the savory version is more widespread and found throughout Italy.

If you can find a tarallificio, taralli maker, that’s the best place to buy them, but you can often find them in supermarkets throughout Italy as well. If they’re fresh you’ll bite into them with a crunch, and if they’re extra delicious, they’ll be a bit flakey from the oil. Below are the large version, but the smaller bite-sized version are probably more well-known and found.

Marocchino

Beyond the regular caffè, espresso, and the cappuccino, you should try a marocchino (mar-oh-KEY-noh) while you’re in Italy. It may be called an espressino depending on where you are, but most bars should understand your request of a marocchino, an espresso served in a glass cup topped with hot, frothed milk and a touch of cacao powder (or chocolate syrup or whipped cream or Nutella, depending on the bar).

Cacio e Pepe Pasta

Eat cacio e pepe, grated pecorino romano cheese and crushed black pepper pasta, immediately. Do not pass go, do not try other pastas. This is one of my top comfort foods. Rome is the home of cacio e pepe, and will be the best place to try it and you can get it at most restaurants. Try it at Cesare al Casaletto or Flavio al Velavevodetto for starters.

Funghi Porcini, porcini mushrooms

Dried porcini are often used in risotto and other dishes, but if you can get them fresh you can prepare them many other ways like funghi trifolati, sautéed mushrooms, in pasta or on top of polenta; on a pizza, or sott’olio, under oil, and spread on toasted bread.

You’ll want to make sure that the mushroom is as fresh as possible, and if the underskirt starts to turn dark green, or there are holes in the stem, you know they’re getting a little old. The porcini mushroom season starts mid-to-late summer (July-ish) and can go through most of the fall (October/November) and you’ll see mushrooms at most Italian street markets and some supermarkets.

Pasticcini, Italian pastries

Pasticcini, pastries in Italy, are ubiquitous and present at most holidays, parties, and the occasional Sunday dinner. I don’t love all of them (some of the rum-soaked sponge cake puts me off), but getting a colorful tray and trying all the flavors to find your favorite is worth doing and is a fun thing to share.

Many supermarkets will offer pasticcini if they are baking in house, but I would definitely recommend going to a bar or bakery which specializes in them to get the best selection. Not sure where to go? Keep your eye out for beautifully wrapped packages being carried by people on the weekend or a holiday, and ask.

Acciughe, Fried or fresh anchovies

I never used to think much of acciughe / alici, anchovies, before I moved to Italy. I knew them as super salty things from a can and something to make sure didn’t show up on my pizza. But trying anchovies in Italy changed my mind completely. I love them fresh such as in alici al limone, marinated in lemon juice, garlic, and parsley; and they’re also delicious when battered and fried.

]]>Oh, so many to pick. I thought I’d sift through my food memories (and some locations, too) to share the best of 2016 with you, and hopefully give you a few items to add to your own food lists. A few you may have seen if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, but many have never been shared!

Let’s dive right in. In no particular order…

Best Picture-Worthy Aperitivo

Hotel de Russie (Rome) always makes the aperitivo beautiful (tied cucumbers!), and those sage almonds were delicious. The view beyond the drinks of their garden was just as beautiful.

Best Airport Lounge Food

Delta, and I believe this was in L.A.. They had pho. Let me repeat that. They had pho in an airport lounge! That day I was also feeling a little under the weather so I added a ton of jalapeños and Sriracha. So good. Thank you, Delta!

Best Household-turned-Kitchen Item

Best New Craving Place

Crack Shack (San Diego), hands down. Great fried chicken sandwiches, and I’ve never been a huge fan of them, either. This “Señor Croque” has bacon, fried egg, cheddar, miso-maple butter, on a brioche bun. The Coop DeVille was excellent as well.

These Mexican poutine aka loaded fries were amazing, as well.

Best Up & Coming Coffee Culture

Paris is really starting to up their game when it comes to espresso. Historically coffee hasn’t been amazing in France, but that’s starting to change, and I loved seeking out and exploring some of the places putting coffee first.

This is from The Beans on Fire which rotates who’s roasting and serving coffee mid-week, but I’ve also been to several on this list (published after my last trip to Paris else I would have used it!) including KB Cafeshop, Cafe Oberkampf, and Holybelly.

Best Comfort Food

It remains cacio e pepe, pasta with pecorino romano and pepper, forever. If there are more than three ingredients in your cacio e pepe (pasta, cheese, pepper), you’re doing it wrong. Here are a few places in Rome to get it, but you should definitely make it yourself at home!

Best French Pastry

Bonci, Bonci, Bonci

Bonci, and especially the pizza, still gets its own mention. This year, I spent more time trying to replicate the amazing Bonci potato pizza at home so I can get it all the time. Bonci has a pizza cookbook if you can’t get to Rome yourself.

Best Way to Eat Soup: In a Dumpling

While I was in Sydney (Australia), I was lucky enough to have dumplings, especially these delicious soup dumplings, at Din Tai Fung. They’re from Taiwan but they’re now in the US and a few other international locations as well.

Not familiar with soup dumplings? You can watch The Shanghai Soup Dumpling episode with Emeril and Mario Batali on Amazon for a great intro.

Best Cake / Pastry Display

Purebread in Whistler, Canada. It almost makes your eyes melt. How can you choose what to get?

Best Trendy, but not Overhyped, Ingredient

Cauliflower riceis pretty delicious, and makes a pretty healthy fried rice you can binge on and feel good about. Make your own.

Best Grilled Octopus

Grilled octopus is something I will auto-order if it’s on a menu (in Italy) and not every one is great, but when it’s good, it’s great! This one was during my team meetup in Florence, at io – Osteria Personale, thanks to a recommendation from Erin, and was definitely in the great category.

Best Aspirational Place for Aperitivo

Someday, I hope to have a beautiful place for aperitivo of my own, but I doubt it will be as beautiful as this rooftop terrace at the Hotel Baglioni in Florence, Italy. Extra bonus points if the hotel is pretty deserted as we found it.

Best New Food Trend

Poke bowls are the new sushi, especially in the Bay Area (California). Even Whole Foods has a poke bar so you can even self-serve. Some poke bars are good, some are great, and some are probably disguising not-awesome fish. But spicy, crunchy, and savory…so good.

Best Atypical Tasting Party Idea: French Butter

Go to a supermarket in France and buy all the butter you can find to taste test your favorite on slices of baguette. The Beillevaire demi-sel croquant (with crunchy flakes of salt) is my favorite.

Best Way to Get a Taste of Italy if You’re Not There

This was a really cool concept and would make a great gift for an Italophile – a subscription service to get the best of Italy! Nonna Box can be sent monthly, with a selection of products and recipes to use those products. I received the Piemonte / Piedmont box and there was a good mix of favorites (like risotto with porcini mushrooms) and a few products which are certain to be discoveries for those who don’t live in Italy (like corn cookies aka paste di meliga), along with some history and information about what they’ve sent.

Disclosure: I was sent a free sample box to check out by the team at Nonna Box (and no other compensation), but opinion / words are my own. I really liked the quality of the presentation and the products, and have already planned to gift a subscription.

Best New Way to Eat Nutella

When I was in Montenegro, my lovely hosts made sure I found out about Nutella & Plazma. Here, those Plazma cookies (also called Plasmon in Italy) are crushed up and sprinkled on top of the Nutella which was spread over the palacinke – crepe, but I’ve heard a favorite way is to just eat the biscuits with Nutella directly.

Best Crêpe Bretonne (France) Combo

Brie, walnuts, bacon, and honey, or pretty much anything on the menu at West Country Girl in Paris. Their crispy, buttery edges are what I dream about.

Best Dish to Share with a Friend

When in Vienna, you should definitely try wiener schnitzel, breaded veal cutlet, and share it with a friend if it’s as big as the one we got while I was in Vienna for WordCamp Europe. It was literally falling off the plate. The cotoletta, from Milan, is similar but not quite the same, and Le Cotolette in Milan also serves them gigantic (but not amazing).

Best Treat That Looks Gluttonous but is Really Only a Few Bites of Guilt

I’m sure I’ve talked about Aux Merveilleux de Fred (France, but mostly in Paris) before, and if I haven’t, shame on me. They show you how they make these wonderful meringue concoctions through their wide shop windows where you can peer in creepily at the workers and watch them spread cream on meringues and then roll them in toasted and sugary bits that you’d prefer to roll in yourself, and then you realize you’ve been staring long enough to be rude and for it to count as entertainment so you just have to go inside and buy some (and then try not to be amazed at how you pay through an ultra-modern cash machine so they don’t have to handle dirty coins and cash with your food) and then you bite into these lovely fluffy mounds that literally disintegrate in your mouth, and you realize you might have only gotten a bite or maximum two out of each one and you should have ordered at least twice as many as you wanted to but now it’s too late to go back.

So order more.

Best Single-Purpose Kitchen Tool I Don’t Regret Purchasing

If you make chicken stock or soups as much as I do, you’ll enjoy this drumstick-shaped herb and spice infuser in silicone. Instead of tying up things with string, I throw some sticks of rosemary, bay leaves, peppercorns, and even coriander / thyme / fennel seed as desired to infuse in my broth, with little-to-no cleanup after.

Best Ramen: Miso Broth

Ramen is hot hot hot right now in the Bay Area, and many restaurants have lines out the door to get it. Remember I talked about craving tantanmen? I am now getting a lot of ramen often, and I am firmly on the miso broth wagon for ramen.

Best Italian Morning Pastry

I’ve kind of given up on enjoying a cornetto or brioche in Italy, as they’re a far cry from the buttery croissants I expect from a pastry in that shape. They can be made with lard or margarine instead of butter, they may be more cakey than flakey. There are exceptions! But based on the breadth of quality I can encounter in a cornetto, I don’t order them all the time. If I can order a veneziana brioche, a simple sweet bread with a little sugar/custard on top, I will, or if I’m in Rome, I’ll get a maritozzo instead.

Best Place to do More Food Exploring

Vancouver was lovely to explore, and I can’t wait to go back. A memorable quick/casual bite at Meat & Bread followed by a great coffee at Revolver nearby was a great no-fuss quality experience.